The Opelousas courier., 1887-02-05
LOUIE AND I,
EY HARRIET PRESCOTT spoFFoRD.

Adto oecIi uTprlSeQ at IL all
or if | had even been bright and witty
but such a little simpleton as 1!
In all my life had the least eS
pectat1on OF loTcrs, CT of any sort of ad
mlrlng glances; and | never had any, An.
sometimes mother used to say she guesse,
1t was just as well. for if she had had t
dress two girls out for their pretty looks
as she did one, it would have beggare,
her. Mother only had q little money
Just barely enough to live on, and som,
OF the principal going every year, but i
wouldn't have been in human nature
having a daughter so pretty as Louie
not to want her to ha 6 the best thai
would set off her peach-bloom beauty
and, Tor ny part, I never grudged Loui,
a rose or a ribbon. I couldn't have worr
them II | had had them, for | was fan
too proud to try TO do what Nature
hadn't, or to pretend I thought such
lungs became me; and | liked nv print
dresses and plain collars better for nv.
self.
But when Louie was dressed in her mus.
Inns till she looked like one of the old
fashioned blush roses, 80 white without
and so delicately flushed within. her
lovely yellow hair breaking out in sunny
curis all over her head, and she all radi-
ant: as you might say, with her skin, her
smiles, her teeth, her great blue, beam
ing ~eyes--then l used to like to look at
her as much as any of Der lovers did; to
LOOK at her as l would look at any lovely
picture; and she always turned from her
gayest scene--the dear Little person-to
give her sweetest smile to me.
so when Dennis began all at once to
come to our house, as if he had lust seen
Louie for the first time in his life, | was
only delighted. For every one who knew
him loved and honored Dennis Reed. who
was the soul of all integrity; and if he
wasn't a beauty himself, he was a stalwart
son OF Saul, and had the incest little place
IN the reglon-a cottage up a lane, over
looking the river, and with a wood be-
hind its orchard and across the railway
cut, to keep off the east wind-if the
east wind could ever blow in that SUNNY
nook with a garden spot made and
blooming In every Granny of the rocks
around it.
He married her, and took her away;
and a happier nest of singing BIRDS than
that IN the little cottage among the rocks
and flowers could nowhere have been
found, unless it were in nv own heart.
at the sight of the happiness there.
But then mother fell sick. and it took
all my time to care for her; and | couldn't
go up to Louie's very often; for l had
everything to do at home, and was tired
u by nightfall, and often up half the
night lesides. Louie couldn't very well
come down often; and if she had come,
she wouldn't have known what to do. |
Poor motheri Once | remember. she
SAID to me, Il don't know but it's more
satisfactory to have one daughter plain.
than anything else1' And It made nv
heart bound. And then I reproached
my selflshness in caring to have her saw
that over. Louie's head, as it were: but I
remembered it long aftcrward. and some.
times it used to give me a throb or iov
wnen everything was dreary, and I
seemed to be a1pne in the world.
For mother died presently. And then
u turned out that she had been living on
1er little property more than we had
1feamed, and Louie's outfit and her
long illness and its bills had used
Up money. And when everything was
oaia, they had only enough left for me
% hlre one room as a sort of refuge when
came home at night from working at
ny trades for I had quite a knack at
l~ressmaking. I did not put on mourn
ng; for I was glad that mother was out
pain, and I "a glad that she was
before she knew thst-aif the mon
rty was gone and she, with her proud
plrt, would have had to be dependent.
rat Louie did-aad oh! what a beauty
ne was. with her black grapes falling F,
round her, SO waXen, fair and ROSY and
transparent! Of course she didn't miss I
lother the way / did. How could she. {
18th Dennis waiting on her every wish2
nd she didn't seem to want ANYBODY 8
ut Dennis, either; SO I didn't see a
reat deal of her, only when she had S
ometh1ng new to make up, or some- |
alng old to alter over; and then. she i
Gennis were out most of the time |
among the rocks or planting a
ew foWer-garden, or she was going to |
!eet MN coming from his work, or run
ing into the ne t neighbor's. aero s the t
asture, and had almost nothing of her, b
kept ut trying-on times. I used to 4
'onder at Louie then, a little, some d
mes; not for not sitting at home sew S
q and helping me on the work. because q
ol might as well have asked a hum a
ing bird to do that; but for not taking h
ore interest in the house and keeping "
lings trig and tidy. And / used to he o
that If I were Dennis, and there a
ere holes IN my socks. and half the but. i,
ms of my clothes. and my coat and hat e
brushed, and I came home and q,
und nothing for dinner-not even the 81
9th laid-and my wife off enjoying tx
'rself somewhere else, and the dust
so that / could write nv Il
me, that shouldn't feel recompensed
: all that by having my wife stroll j,
und hanging on my arm, looking as
as a neW-hlown rose. And VET all ID
ough the house must often have been
oroughly Uncomfortable to Dennis. he \;
yer gave q sign thatit was not paradise j
elf; and 4 canne TO the conclusion that 81
dien I really miss those other things. &
q was satisfied with what he had. A,
| used to 20 up into the Eden some II
nes without being sent for. and mend !,
800 enAGS, dAu put the WlOle mouse IN,
'aIght; but couldn't 60 SO very often a
account Of my work; and, beside, i r
9 9 sensation of intruding where two .
opie wanted but each other. n
But at last the babies came; and then =;
lad to 90. And Louie was wild with
Ilght, and Insisted on having them Il
4 on the pillow close TO her check. and &,
ked and laughed and cooed and cried y
them with such glittering eyes and Il,
,zling color ID her face, and said III was II
She wanted. even if she were ii Haauan n